During the call setup process of a VoIP call, the called party receives very limited information about the incoming call, e.g., only the calling party's name and telephone number (primarily consisting of calling party identification data). The calling party also only typically receives a response indicating whether or not the call is accepted (primarily consisting of acceptance data) without receiving further information regarding the call setup status. For instance, the calling party cannot provide the called party additional information regarding the nature of the call and the called party cannot provide the calling party pertinent reasons as to why the incoming call is rejected.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for providing user metadata exchange during call setup in a packet network, e.g., a VoIP network.